Though activists like to claim that GMO crops are unregulated, a great deal of work goes into assessing their environmental risk and developing mechanisms for their safe release and use, as Sol Guerrero Ortiz reports from the International Symposium on the Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms (ISBGMO).

Comments are being accepted through May 19 on a plan to conduct open field tests of a self-limiting, genetically engineered diamondback moth that could help farmers control the destructive agricultural pest without the use of insecticides. The process affects only diamondback moths, and unlike pesticide applications, would leave beneficial insects unharmed.

Speakers at Nigeria's March for Science emphasized need to improve relations between the scientific community and the public, trust scientific principles and embrace biotechnology to improve the nation's food security.

Bolstered by a solid and functional biosafety framework, Malawi is one of the few countries in Africa poised to move forward in commercializing genetically modified crops, with cotton, cowpea and banana now in field trials.

Scientific innovations, including crop biotechnology, are helping us meet the challenge of feeding a growing population while addressing five major agricultural problems: nitrogen, topsoil, land conservation, pesticides and thirsty plants.